Surf City boating mishap sends one to hospital

A boating accident in Surf City this weekend sent a 14-year-old boy to the hospital.

KATIE HANSEN - Daily News Staff

A boating accident in Surf City this weekend sent a 14-year-old boy to the hospital.

Officials with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission said a 14-year-old is in stable condition after he fell off an innertube being tugged behind a boat in the Intracoastal Waterway in Surf City Saturday afternoon.

The boat was being driven by Michael Allen Blackwood of Raleigh, said John White, a Wildlife Enforcement Officer in Jones County.

Blackwood had three other passengers on the boat and was pulling a tube with two minors on the back.

White said they left the access area at Surf City and headed north toward the West Onslow Beach access area. As they were going through the Surf City Intracoastal Waterway, White said the weight of the boat created a wake which the tube started riding on top of.

“The tube came off the wake, it went sharply to the right toward the channel markers and it glanced off a pole,” White said.

He said one of the kids on the tube was merely knocked off and suffered no injuries; however, the other, according to witnesses, tried to push himself off the tube and ended up hitting the pole, or mile marker, in full force.

White said the boat’s driver had a spotter and immediately saw what had happened, so they turned around for the child, whose name has not been released because he is a minor.

They found him unconscious and face down in the water, but White said he was wearing a life jacket, so he was floating on the water when they pulled him out.

“They immediately started CPR and after a few moments he started breathing again,” he said.

White said the group on the boat called 911 and met an ambulance at the Surf City access area, where the minor was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center. He was treated for internal bruising of the kidney and spleen, a laceration to his jaw line and chin, and underwent surgery to his knee.

White said Tuesday that he was in stable condition.

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